ProMat 2015, slated to be held March 23-26, will feature more than 800 exhibits and include a comprehensive educational conference. The event, held at the McCormick Place South, will offer an array of products to increase productivity in your operations. Here’s a guide to many of them.

In today's supply chain, the only constant is change.
Our white paper 'Change Your Perspective: Four Keys to Effectively Adapting to Rapid Change in the Distribution Center Environment' provides key insights on not only adapting to trends, but which trends will enable you to achieve running the warehouse of the future.

During this Webcast you'll learn how the latest generation of robotics systems, which incorporate vision, mobility, autonomous navigation, complex manipulation and motion control, can be used in a wide variety of appliations such as picking, placing, order fulfillment, palletizing, depalletizing, loading, unloading and many other areas.

Kelly-Moore Paints, the fifth-largest paint company in the United States, identified two important challenges at one of its manufacturing facilities: production flow inefficiencies and hand palletizing products that weigh up to 70 pounds. In an effort to improve employee safety and ergonomics, the company set out to automate its end-of-line process with robotic palletizers.

“We needed a partner that could work with us to engineer a solution that met our needs in a scalable way,” says Keith Hussinger, plant manager for Kelly-Moore Paints. “What the provider offered was exactly what we wanted: a complete, turnkey installation with an experienced team to support it.”

Two robotic arms meet the required palletizing rates while working within the limited space available at the facility. The 5-gallon pails posed a unique engineering challenge. A 2-inch diameter tinting port on each lid could not withstand a vacuum effector, so the provider custom-engineered end-of-arm tooling that prevented the flow of air from pulling out this port.

In addition, unwrapped trays of paint cans demand a tool that can pick up quart and gallon paint can patterns as well as loose cardboard trays. The provider designed an additional end-of-arm tool with a vacuum specifically for the cardboard tray.

The final design lifts the cans and secures the tray as product is moved to the pallet.

The system was installed and delivered on time and on budget during the off-peak season in 2009. Over the next year, the facility eliminated breaks required for heavy lifting with the old manual palletizing process, and increased worker comfort while decreasing lost-time accidents.

“In only one year, we have had a 76% ROI in our labor time,” says Hussinger. “Line changeovers take only 9 minutes, representing an 80% reduction in line changeover time. The transformation has been incredible.”

About the Author

Josh BondAssociate Editor

Josh Bond is an associate editor to Modern. Josh was formerly Modern’s lift truck columnist and contributing editor, has a degree in Journalism from Keene State College and has studied business management at Franklin Pierce.

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In today's supply chain, the only constant is change.
Our white paper 'Change Your Perspective: Four Keys to Effectively Adapting to Rapid Change in the Distribution Center Environment' provides key insights on not only adapting to trends, but which trends will enable you to achieve running the warehouse of the future.